


A Comfortable Silence

by Mozanii



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 08:42:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7708426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mozanii/pseuds/Mozanii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“If you knew, then why are you still here?” Kaneki asks.</p><p>The case in where Hide and Kaneki have a heart-to-heart about their experiences in their time apart.<br/>Based on Episode 12 of Tokyo Ghoul Square Root A.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Comfortable Silence

Despite the sounds of the constant barrage of firearms, explosions, and clashings of metal coming from outside, it was comfortably silent within Anteiku. 

“Coffee is surprisingly hard to make, isn’t it?” Hide says, walking from around the counter with two cups of fresh coffee in each hand. The sight of his lost, or not-so long-lost friend, made Kaneki’s eyes widen with surprise.

“Yo, Kaneki.” Hide says, smiling at him, almost as if nothing had changed from the last time he saw him over a year ago. 

Stunned, Kaneki could only look at the orange-haired boy in shock, “Hide…”

Almost as if he was shocked by lightning, Kaneki suddenly remembered how different he looked from the Kaneki Hide knew once before. With shame filling his system, Kaneki quickly lowered his head and covered his eye, shielding the other boy’s vision from his changed appearance.

Almost immediately, a wave of sadness enveloped Hide as he looked sympathetically at his old friend, breaking down and shaking from the fear of being rejected by the one person that had been there for him all of his life. Kaneki continued to stare at Hide, eyes filling to the brim with tears. His body, so overcome with emotion, started to whimper softly.

Hide panicked at the sight and quickly wrapped his arms around Kaneki’s waist, pulling the white-haired boy’s head against his shoulder, tears soaking into the fabric of his shirt.

Pulling him closer by his waist, Hide whispered, “Kaneki, I knew…” Hide offers him, giving him an empathetic smile. 

“What?” Kaneki asks incredulously, pulling slightly away from him.

“I found out a long time ago…I've always known.” Hide tries to reassure him.

“If you knew, then why are you still here?” Kaneki asks, almost skeptical of Hide's true intentions.

“I’m here…for you. I’ve never stopped looking for you ever since you disappeared….and now that you’re standing here in front of me, it’s like as if all the words I wanted to say aren’t coming out anymore. Kind of pathetic, right?” Hide laughs lightly, rubbing his hand through the hair on the back of his head. 

“Are you disgusted by this….by me?” Kaneki asks, almost fearful of his response.

“Yeah, I’m disgusted by that ugly eyepatch you keep wearing! Are you trying to make a fashion statement?” Hide laughs again, making his friend smile for the first time in months. 

The sight brings a smile to Hide’s own face, “I’m being serious here, Kaneki!” 

Kaneki laughs a bit harder before his body suddenly jerks at a smell that arouses his senses. Was that… _blood?_

“Hide, are you bleeding?” Kaneki asks, panicked.

“I went on the battlefield looking for you, and I guess I kind of got caught up in something. Pretty stupid, huh? Going out on the battlefield in the middle of all those ghouls...” Hide laughs, pulling up his shirt to expose a slight flesh wound on his abdomen.

“Hide! Why would you do that?” Kaneki asks, eyes widening at the flesh wound. 

“Are you dense? I just said I was looking for you!” Hide tries to laugh again, but winces at the pain jolting up his spine.

“Here, use my shirt to slow the bleeding.” Kaneki says, ripping the fabric off of his body. 

“Honestly Kaneki? What is this leather shirt gonna do for me? It's not as bad as it looks...I swear.” Hide tries to joke with the other boy, but Kaneki looked dead serious.

Kaneki looked straight into the blonde’s eyes, “You don’t need to try so hard with me, Hide.” 

Hide smiles and sighs, finally laying down on the ground and letting his ghoul friend apply pressure to his wound. Hide’s eyes wander over the white-haired boy’s body filled with numerous scars and fresh wounds.

As his eyes wander over Kaneki’s torso, a certain large scar catches his attention in particular. “Kaneki, what happened here?” Hide says, hands running over the rough skin.

Kaneki jumped slightly at the surprise touch, “Oh, that? That was from a fight with Nishio-san. He punched right through my stomach.” 

“You say that as if it’s normal…” Hide jokes with him, causing the other boy to laugh.

“That was the day I learned how to use my kagune. The day…that I was able to protect you for the first time.” Kaneki’s eyes wandered away from Hide this time.

“Hm… that was also the day that I found out you were a ghoul. My best friend is a ghoul, who would have thought?” Hide smiles.

“What exactly were you thinking....back then?” 

“I thought…I thought about how grateful I was that you protected me, Kaneki. Thank you…” Hide’s bright smile never faded. 

Hide’s words brought a light smile to Kaneki’s face once more, “Ever since we were little kids, you’ve always protected me. Now that I have the means to do so, I will protect _you_ now. I will never let anybody hurt you.”

“I’m already hurt if you haven’t noticed!” Hide tries to joke, but it only brings a frown to Kaneki’s face.

“Not everything has to be a damn joke, Hide. I’m being serious.” Kaneki chides for a second, but is quickly taken aback when Hide wraps his arms around him once again.

Kaneki opens his mouth to protest, but is quickly silenced when he feels warm tears fall onto his bare skin on his shoulders. 

“Hide?” Kaneki asks, wide-eyed. 

He doesn’t answer for a moment, but merely hugs Kaneki tighter in his arms as more tears fall from his face. “Kaneki…I thought you were _dead_.” his voice completely filled with distress and raw emotion.  


“All these months…all those posters…all those news stories… I thought you _died_. Kaneki, do you have any idea what that feeling was like? The feeling that… the feeling that... the person that I love the most could have been taken away from me forever? That kind of shit feeling when that said person disappears without telling you for months on end and you live only with the little hope that they’re safe despite everything that you've heard? The feeling that you want to talk to them and ask them how they are, but have no way of contacting you? Like _shit_ Kaneki….” Hide lets his heart take over his words, tears still streaming down his face.

Kaneki was taken aback by his friend’s emotional words. “I’m sorry, Hide. I know I put you through so much… I don’t have any right to come back to you now…after all I’ve done. What can I do for you to forgive me?” The white haired boy wraps his arms around Hide to return the affection.

“Don’t leave me. Always stay with me so I know you’re alright. Don’t take on all this burden yourself, Kaneki. Trust in me.” Hide pleads, desperation evident in his voice.

“I can’t make those promises, Hide.” Kaneki answers solemnly.

“That’s the first honest thing you’ve said to me in months.” Hide says, smirking slightly and attempts to wipe the tears away from his eyes. 

“I can’t promise that I won’t leave again, but I will promise that I will always return home to you. Just wait for me, I'll make it back, no matter what.” Kaneki’s voice shakes, but his eyes are full of strength and determination.

“It’s a promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> Because I'm a shit author at updating, I decided to only write one chapter fics from this point forwards. Hide is my boo and I refuse to have him fatally injured in any way so I wrote this to create my own scene for that episode and how it should have went.
> 
> p.s. do you know how many times i had to rewind this episode to write the beginning lmao.


End file.
